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Title: Whole‐ecosystem oxygenation experiments reveal substantially greater hypolimnetic methane concentrations in reservoirs during anoxia
Abstract

Lakes and reservoirs globally produce large quantities of methane and carbon dioxide in their sediments, which accumulate in the hypolimnia (bottom waters) during thermally stratified conditions. A key parameter controlling hypolimnetic greenhouse gas concentrations is dissolved oxygen. Land use and climate change have increased hypolimnetic anoxia worldwide in lakes and reservoirs, which is expected to affect their methane and carbon dioxide concentrations. We conducted whole‐ecosystem oxygenation experiments to assess the effects of oxygen concentrations on dissolved hypolimnetic greenhouse gas concentrations in comparison to a reference reservoir and calculated the maximum hypolimnetic global warming potential in both reservoirs over three summers. We observed significantly greater hypolimnetic methane under anoxic conditions but similar carbon dioxide concentrations, leading to greater hypolimnetic global warming potential of anoxic hypolimnia. Our study indicates that the global warming potential of hypolimnetic greenhouse gas concentrations may increase as the prevalence of hypolimnetic anoxia increases due to global change.

 
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Award ID(s):
1933016 1926050 1753639 1702506 1737424 1933102
NSF-PAR ID:
10361013
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Limnology and Oceanography Letters
Volume:
6
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2378-2242
Page Range / eLocation ID:
p. 33-42
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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